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Yup... It's time for some pics of the GA. I took them about a month ago. I just washed, waxed, and shined it up before I took them. Now for the basic rundown...

It's a Spruce green matallic coupe with the 150hp Quad4 and 5spd. It's stock for the most part except for a few things. Currently, though, the headgaskets leak and it ticks. Nothing too serious as it is runable, just have to check the oil for water quite often and keep a close eye on the gauges. Other than that and the need for a new paint job, it's in excellent condition. It has 118,000 miles. I bought it around New Year's and I paid $1000 for it.

The very few mods include: Clarion ProAudio reciever, Sony Xplod front and Visonic rear speakers, DEI Viper security system, K&N air filter, AVS headlight covers, and a "Grand Am GT" window sticker. Also, I just installed my blacklight a few days ago. I may have pics of it soon... Depending on whether you guys will bash me or not. :P

It's a nice looking car, Vipes. When I was your age, I wanted to modify the hell out of my car too. My '81 Grand Prix (brand new at the time) had those little chrome manual mirrors on each side. I didn't like those, so I planned on replacing them with those black euro-style mirrors that were popular then. Thinking back on it, I'm glad I didn't because they would have looked like crap on the GP. Then I wanted rims. My car had the Pontiac rally wheels. I wanted Keystones, but I couldn't afford to put a set of 4 on all at once. I bought one rim. It sat in the box for a year. I eventually took the wheel to a tire shop to put on consignment and that was the last time I saw it. I never got paid for it.

The point of my longwinded story is... it's your first car, and you have big plans. That's natural, but the best thing to do would be to get the head gasket situation fixed, along with any other mechanical issues. Driving it every day will help you get a feel for it and it might bring out some other things that you'd want to do before you start your customization process.

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Oh... Always. Most I what I planned to do (but probably won't... I dream big. :P ) was to come after I took care of some problems.
However, I really don't know if the head gasket is actually leaking. My dad said it was, but now he says it's fine.. and I just do not know anymore. The ticking is what I would say is the biggest problem, but its more of an inconveniance having to listen to it. It doesn't keep the engine from running great or anything. I don't mind it, but it bothers the hell out of my dad. The sad thing is... no one knows what causes it. Wasn't the timing chain, the headgasket, or anything else my dad checked. Yesterday, they were thinking it was the not-working A/C (I have no idea why) so they disconnected it... wasn't that. Now they think it's a ground wire somewhere. So... I guess we'll see.
Anyways, it may be a first car, but it's in alot better condition then many of my family member's vehicles... which aren't firsts. Given that, my unwillingness to let go, and my willing to sacrifice... I think modding it is fine and should keep it for a while. :D Run it until it dies or until I absolutely need to get rid of it. If anything, some mods should raise it's value if I do sell it sometime.
BTW, a little update... the Alpine speakers are to be ordered soon. I almost have enough money (I need a job :lol: ). Front and rear combined is about $190.

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Nah... It always ticks. Although when I'm off the gas to decelerate or go down a hill, it doesn't. But when I'm on it or it's idling, it does. It does it the most when I'm cruising with my foot hardly on the gas. According to the previous owner, it starting ticking when he put in valve coils... I think that's what he said, atleast.

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yeah nice car man, what you need before anything in that car is make sure you get a cb, saved me a shiteload on cell since my friends all got em, you can put a PA system on a lot of new CB radios and use it like a cop car, lots of fun at the local malt shop, and as far as performance goes, a CAI is nice, you can make your own temporarily or permanently if you have enough skill that your confident enough to do it or buy one for a couple of bucks, personally i think getting a new one looks nice, but you can make a new one just fine that looks decent, my friend used metal ducting and ducting tape, not duct tape, metal ducting tape, it looks pretty crappy for him, but im sure you could do better if you want to try it
all in all CB radios are fun and if you and your buddys want to get one, a good one is prolly around a hundred bucks, but itll save on the cell if ya all got one
Edited August 22, 2005 by mute

Next you'll tell me you don;t know what a Whatsama-Flange is. This morning I was checking my blinker fluid and I noticed my sproket recirculator widget was al out of wack so I hit it with the left handed hammer a few times and fixed it. The trouble is I broke my trnasceiver gizmo in the process. ;)

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:blink:
Anyways... I'm having alot of fun with this car. So far... I've had it up to 80 mph... in 4th gear. I've also found out where it puts out the most power... around 4000 RPMs. But it's a torque-less little thing. I can rev the hell out of it on hills, yet once I shift into the next gear, it just won't go. On flat roads... it's fine, though. Also, this thing has one hell of a reverse, I got to tell you. I swear it's faster than 1st. :D
One thing that I love to do is to turn off my radio and listen to the engine. For a 4cyl, this thing sounds awesome. It is by far the best sounding one I've heard. It still needs a less restrictive exhaust system, however. That will surely make it sound even better and give me some better performance.
Also, I offered to take Bekah for a ride (she's finally starting to not hate so much)... but she says I drive too fast. She's right, but I don't always drive that fast. Only when I'm bored and I want to have some fun... Which is roughly 60% of the time, sadly. :P
Oh, btw, I'm getting pretty shitty fuel economy for a 4cyl. But hey, what can I say... It's fun driving with a lead-foot and I'm not paying for gas. :lol: It'll be a bitch, once I do, though. :(

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Anyways, not only is my parking brake shit... My back brakes are shit. They work, but about as well as the ones on my "Piece of Shit" TRX200... Barely. They're crappy drums anyways...

Also, I just noticed that the fog lights turn off when the high beams are off. It's retarded. They're not even that bright. More or less, they're for looks only. I'm going to see what I can do about that... Another thing is my headlight stalk. Talk about annoying. It takes about 5 pulls to get it to switch from high to low beam or vice-versa. I think it may be because its shitty and because of what I said earlier.

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If it makes you feel any better, I love you BV, but i dont really have much to say besides your lucky to get such a good first car, im still working on it and it looks like your doing right by it, great job, soory about the flukes

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Great colour! I would have got my Cobalt SS in that colour...if they offered it. Looks like you keep it in nice shape. The Quad 4 was nuetured in 95---with balance shafts and the 6200rpm redline. But hey for $1k..... :P

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Yes... it was. Lost 5hp too. Although I didn't realize the redline was that low. The gauges clearly show it to be higher than that. I think that's a case of not getting what was paid for... :P j/k But damn. I thought I hadn't come close to the redline yet, but if that is really what it is, I just about hit it a few times... Oh well...
Since you revived this thread, I might as well type some more...
I haven't gone for a top speed run, yet. I keep meaning to, but I can't find a long enough straight stretch where cops don't lurk. So far, it's still only been up to about 80. I have, however, had some serious fun on the road commonly called "Rollercoaster Road". It earns that name. Woo... Talk about stomach butterflies. And I was only going 60 down it. If I went any faster, I may have left the ground. Don't know, though... I'll have to try. :D
Also, another thing I've been meaning to try is a FWD burnout. It can be down, but maybe not with the GA. If the conditions are right, I may be able to. The feel of some starts make me think so... But I'll just have to try it. B)
Oh, lastly, the PA GA meet is in less than a week now... Can't wait.

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Yeah... well, the backroads around here don't have very long straights and they are very rough. I have to drive the hell out of it to get speed just before I get to one. Basically, I need to be going 70 around some tight turns. Not easy with the road being so rough and with only two good tires. And as I said, I had to slow down for a damn Civic unless I wanted to rear end him. I would have just tried again, but can't really be wasting gas until its back below $2/gal, which will never happen. :D